Ninja, Weapons, and Grappling : A Decade of WTF

Introduction

It has been several years since I have been a serious contributor. But almost 9 years since I have joined the Bullshido Community and 13 years in Martial Arts. I have learned, grown, made mistakes and went from a “ninja” to training with world champion competitors. I will not use any true names, as like most of these stories, and I’ll keep the exact places vague but everything I write is true from my point of view. I am sure some of the people will recognize themselves in my stories, and there will be even be some Bullshido members that were present during some of these. Anyway lets start in 2001, I am a freshman in college and never taken Martial Arts in my life.

Stay Tuned: Part I : The College Years - Chapter 1: Finding my Inner Ninja

My martial arts journey really started in my freshman dorm. My roommate was a wrestler in High School. I know what you are thinking. “Hey, your first experience with Martial Arts will be Wrestling, That’s Awesome!” No, it wasn’t. While my roommate was a wrestler, he never wrestled in college (unless it was playing king of the mountain during a blizzard). Instead, he was far more interested in Kung Fu movies. I remember us watching a subtitled Jackie Chan movie when he said “You know Kung Fu is great, but the real Martial Art is Ninjutsu. Too bad Ninjutsu is illegal to teach because it was so dangerous.” I knew absolutely nothing about Ninjutsu, I never even watched Anime before. So I googled it, and found no less it was not illegal, there was a camp you can go to to learn it. I quickly showed my roommate, which we both decided, can’t be real because Ninjutsu was in fact too dangerous to teach.

Fast forward to the summer between, my freshman and sophomore year. I am taking some summer classes back at home and on my way to class I see a martial arts school with a huge sign that saids “Ninjutsu” and “8 weeks for $99.” I am at home for 8 more weeks and remembering my conversion with my roommate, I can’t believe my luck, no less is Ninjutsu not illegal to teach, there is a school in my own town! So I go in and sign up. The people were nice, and before anyone jumps on it, yes the school was an official X-Kan Dojo. It was a fun summer, I learned to Fall, Roll, some basic X-kan Fists and couple basic throws common to every Japanese Martial Art. We did some sparring and grappling. It seemed legit. Remember, I am raw beginner. I have no idea on how “good Martial Arts” are suppose to look. But I had fun for 2 months, I learned a few things and it was time to go back to school. I was terrible, but I was a terrible “Ninja”. Yes, I was training Ninjutsu, an art that so dangerous that people think its illegal. Even after 2 months of training I thought I could handle most people in a fight. Thank God, my only “street fight” is years away so there was nothing present to break my delusion.

I have the first part complete, which is 6 Chapters. These will cover my College Years. I will be posting them on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday Schedule while I work on Part II.

My hope is that other getting a few laughs, people may see themselves through some of my adventures and mistakes and learn from my experiences.

As someone that is working on getting back into martial after a LONG hiatus, let me say I am looking forward to reading this in the hopes that I can learn all about the good, bad and ugly side of martial arts.

Since you mentioned ninjutsu, I've just got to share this. I moved to-and still live in-Santa Clarita, CA when I was 15. Not long after I got here, an actual Dux-Ryu Ninjutsu school opened. Yep, the deadly Ninja school of Frank Dux himself. I attended a two-part free introductory lesson. We learned some basic stances, some basic hand strikes and some beginner fall/rolling techniques. I was told that I "looked like I could be a good ninja". I didn't go back after that as put more of my time into other activities. The school didn't last too long.

Looking forward to the thread. I had a similar experience many years ago at University except it was Aikido. Again, no experience of martial arts at the time, I was told that Aikido was "the ulitmate martial art"/used opponents strength against them etc. Plus we had a load of hot Japanese exchange students who did it.....

As I mentioned in introduction and some threads, my start with MA was aikido. Segal movies. UGH. Although I actually liked it pretty much I also found out that this is just not what I expect from training.

Strangely (as an easily impressed n00b and a little bit less n00b recreative) I never planned on joining bujinkan, and even if I would, they're too far and I enjoy judo waaaay too much. Hovewer I have this horrible terrible itch to see ninjas in training that just needs scratching. I don't know why. Really, I'm just as weirded out by this strange urge as you are reading this. I see bullies using my brutal honesty for their amusement and I don't mind, humor is one thing for which I return to Bullshido again and again, even if the joke's on me :-).

As I mentioned in introduction and some threads, my start with MA was aikido. Segal Movies. UGH. Although I actually liked it pretty much I also found out that this is just not what I expect from training.

Strangely (as an easily impressed n00b and a little bit less n00b recreative) I never planned on joining bujinkan, and even if I would, they're too far and I enjoy judo waaaay too much. Hovewer I have this horrible terrible itch to see ninjas in training that just needs scratching. I don't know why. Really, I'm just as weirded out by this strange urge as you are reading this.

Will read this thread, thank you.

This sounds a lot like me. I started with Aikido, then moved onto something more direct and immediately useful (Muay Thai). I also occasionally get these strange urges to try the booj.